Mortals Discover the life of a Half-Blood: Lightning Thief
by tribute324
Summary: Percy, Annabeth, and the rest of the crew aboard the Argo the II are transported to Goode high to read the Percy Jackson books to the mortals attending there. Will bring more characters in later. Takes place right after Percy and Annabeth escape Tartarus. Spoilers for all books currently published.
1. Chapter 1

**Good Morning Vietnam!**

**-For those of you who understand that reference, I congratulate you.**

**Here is the first chapter of my new Percy Jackson reading fanfic.**

**Percy and his friends are transported off of the Argo II just after The House of Hades to the gym at Goode High, where the mist has disappeared, and the students, teachers, staff, and others have gathered.**

**Enjoy! This is just the prequel.**

Percy Jackson was laying his bunk aboard the Argo the II recovering from his spout in Tartarus, with his loving girlfriend by his side, when a mysterious white light surrounded them. Unknown to them, the same thing was happening to everyone aboard the great ship.

In the Goode High school auditorium, the students had gathered for yet another mind-numbingly boring, mandatory assembly. As the principal droned on, Andrew Wilson, Julia Censor, and Travis Creed whispered about several topics, but the main was their missing friend. Percy had gone missing almost a year ago, and still there was nothing. Most had given up, and Percy wasn't popular at the school, but those few friends he had cared deeply about him. They knew he wasn't the best, but they took him in with all his flaws. All of a sudden, the principal stopped abruptly.

At the edge of the stage a white light, a portal had appeared. Through it came a blonde girl with striking grey eyes, a girl with soft brown hair with a feather braided in it, a boy with blonde hair in a buzz cut in a purple t-shirt, another boy with curly brown hair that was covered with engine grease, a girl with extremely curly dark hair and dark skin, and a boy with brown hair, a buzz cut, and a purple t-shirt, and a small boy in all black with olive skin and dark shaggy hair. Finally, the one person anyone in the room knew out of the bunch came through. Percy Jackson, alive, was standing on the stage.

"PERCY!" The three sitting in the audience shouted in unison. Only then did the group on the stage seem to come back to reality.

"Oh my Gods, this cannot be happening." Percy said, sea green eyes wide with dread.

"Where are we Percy?" The blonde girl asked, taking his hand. That had to be the girlfriend he was always raving about.

"My school, Goode High School. _In New York._" He said this as if he couldn't believe it.

The rest of the group got wide eyes.

"Percy," Mr. Blofis stood up, and practically ran onto the stage.

"Paul!" Percy exclaimed. Julia whispered to the other two who looked confused, reminding them that Mr. Blofis was Percy's step-father.

"How did you get here?" Paul asked his step-son, after he had given him a hug.

"I have no idea. We were in Greece not a minute ago."

"What were you doing in Greece?" Paul asked, but Percy just gave him a look that said

"_Long story that I am not willing to tell at the present time,"_

Then, in another flash of white light, a piece of paper fell out of thin air.

The girl with brown hair with feathers picked it up and read it aloud.

_Dear Demi-gods, and mortals,_

_The selected demi-gods have been brought to this place to read a series of books chronicling the quests of one Percy Jackson. Some others may join you at a later time. There are 10 books in all, but they will be sent 5 at a time, as they deal with different major battles and time periods._

_Mortals, we know this is hard to grasp, but please believe the group in front of you, and don't be too hard on them._

_Time stands still outside of the auditorium, and supplies will be provided as needed. No one can leave until all the books have been read, and we are pleased with the result._

_Please no killing, maiming, electrifying, drowning, calling undead warriors, charm speaking, or transforming at inappropriate times._

_Happy reading_

_The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus_

Of course, the reading of the letter brought uproar from the crowd. Calls of pranks, and foolishness rose from the teachers, while the students hurled insults and cries of disbelief.

"QUIETI" Percy called into the crowd. The authority he showed, like he knew he was meant to be the leader, silenced the crowd.

"Okay, look, you can believe me or not, but don't blame us when you get blown to bits by all powerful beings. The Greek gods of ancient times still exist, and they still govern the universe. They still have kids with mortals, just like they always have. We," he gestured to the group who had appeared, "are some of those children."

The way he spoke, made the group of mortals believe him, no matter how crazy it sounded.

"Okay, we believe you," A teacher, Ms. Bale spoke for the crowd, "But we only know one of you, can the others please introduce themselves?"

"Alright guys, names, titles, just like always," Percy directed the group.

The blonde guy with the buzz cut came forward.

"Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, praetor of the 12th legion, one of the seven."

Next the brown haired girl, who appeared to be his girlfriend, came to stand next to him.

"Piper Mclean, daughter of Aphrodite, charm speaker, one of the seven."

Next came the dark skinned girl.

"Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto, one of the seven, and I can control the riches of the earth."

The shaggy haired boy stepped forward.

"Might as well keep siblings together, Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, ghost prince, one of the seven.

The boy covered in grease was next in line.

"Alright, I am the awesome Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, builder of the Argo the II, one of the seven, fire lord." To show off, he set his hand on fire. Many in the room screamed, but he simply flicked his wrist, and it disappeared, leaving no injury.

Percy's girlfriend then stepped forward.

"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, official architect of Mt. Olympus, one of the seven, savior of Olympus," Percy always made her put that in her title, claiming she did just as much as he did.

Percy then stepped forward.

"This might take a while. Okay, Percy Jackson , son of Poseidon, hero of the first great prophecy, defeater of more monsters then you can imagine, savior of Olympus, defeater of Kronos, king of the titans, one of the seven.

The group was in awe of what Percy had done.

"Alright," Paul said, gesturing to a pile of books that had appeared on the table at the edge of the stage.

"Who wants to read first?"

"Why don't you Paul, as you are the English teacher." Mrs. Drew suggested.

"Very well," Paul said.

"Book One **The Lightning Thief**"

**There you go. The first real chapter is currently in the works. It should be up soon! I can't promise an update schedule, but I will update when I can. Who do you guys want me to bring in? Leave me a review and let me know. I will bring in the most popular characters that you guys give me.**

**Thanks for reading**

**-Tribute324**


	2. I vaporize my Pre-Algebra teacher

**Here's the first real chapter. I realized that I forgot Frank in the last chapter, and that I said Nico was one of the seven. To clarify, Nico is not one of the seven, but he was aboard the ship, and he is one of my favorite characters so he is here to stay. Frank is in this chapter though. Thank you to all of you who reviewed, favorite, and followed this story from the very first chapter!**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, or anything associated with it in this fanfic. The bolded words are not mine.**

**I accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher, **Paul read.

"Care to explain?" Paul said, looking thoroughly confused.

"No, but the book will." Percy answered.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"No one does, but we're stuck." Annabeth sighed.

The mortals, especially the students, were a bit confused. Being a half- blood sounded awesome.

Before Paul could continue, couches appeared on the stage, and the chairs the students and teachers were sitting in were replaced as well. The auditorium now resembled one massive living room, including several fire places, and doors leading to the bathrooms, boys and girls, dorm rooms, a kitchen, and several rooms for anyone that needed to blow off steam or get away.

"Ah much better," Leo joked, reclining in his seat and lacing his hands together behind his head.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Huh, not bad advice seaweed brain," Annabeth teased affectionately. Percy just smiled and put his arm around her shoulders.

**Being a half blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Well Perce, I think you pretty much just summed up our entire existence." Nico commented.

"Hey, being a half-blood would be awesome," a student named Jake called. "You guys get awesome powers and stuff."

"Yes, but 99% of half-bloods die before they hit 20. Percy and I are 17, and we are the oldest demi-gods currently alive. Everyone else was killed." Annabeth said in a matter of face tone.

Jake paled considerably, and sat down without another word.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages- if you feel something stirring inside- stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they**_** sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"Who is this they?" a teacher called.

"Monsters, angry gods, and a bunch of other nasty things that like the taste of demi-god." Frank spoke up. Ever since he had been made praetor, and gotten his blessing from Mars, he had been much more social and vocal.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

**I'm twelve years old.**

"You were so young," Annabeth cooed, remembering young Percy.

The adults in the room felt sorry for the young man. His life had been hard, and he had been through so much in a short 5 years. They couldn't believe how young he had been when it all started.

**Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes," the demi-gods chorused together.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"At least he admits it." Nico joked.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

**I know- it sounds like torture.**

"No, it sounds amazing." Annabeth huffed.

**Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

"Well, it wasn't a boring trip," Percy commented, with a tone that blatantly said he wasn't telling the whole truth, which frustrated the mortals.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"You slept in school!" Annabeth cried, scandalized that her boyfriend could do such a horrible thing.

"Hey, don't act like you have never nodded off during a particularly boring geometry lesson or something."

Annabeth sighed, but had to admit there had been some pretty boring lessons in which she had closed her eyes for a few seconds, but only a few seconds!

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

"Well that's ominous." Travis commented, loud enough for Percy to hear.

"Guys! Hey! I didn't realize you guys were in here." Percy ran down from the stage, gave Julia a hug, and high fived Andrew and Travis. He then lead his three friends back up to the stage, where another couch had appeared.

"Guys, this is Julia, Andrew, and Travis," he introduced them, pointing to them each in turn. "They're my friends."

Greetings were exchanged, and the demi-gods seemed like a good group, and they were very welcoming.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

"Dude, what were you aiming for?" Leo choked out in gasps between laughs.

"I honestly don't think I was aiming for anything, I just really wanted to fire it. Demi-god instincts I guess, see something that has the power to destroy, it must be tested." Percy laughed with his friends.

The other demi-gods were relieved to see Percy and Annabeth acting normally, even after their ordeal.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

"No worries, Percy can just use his fish Jedi mind tricks and get the sharks to go away." Piper joked.

This of course, left everyone who didn't already know, wondering exactly what powers Percy possessed, and how powerful he really was.

**And the time before that… Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomatic girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Grover! Man, I haven't seen G-man in forever."

"Not since before you went missing I think. That makes it almost a year." Jason clarified.

"I need to talk to him when we are done here." Percy thought aloud

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Way to blow your cover G-man." Percy said loud enough for only the demi-gods to hear, as not to spoil the surprise for everyone else.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Well that's why it happened. You can't have a field trip and not have anything be entertaining. It's against the laws of nature." Hazel commented.

"**I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Could you?" Kate, a quiet sophomore asked.

"In 5 seconds flat." Percy answered. There was no point in hiding it. They were either going to see it live, or read about it eventually.

The hall didn't look scared per say, just stunned.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"**That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there, In- school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"Technically, you didn't get yourself into it. It's not your fault your dad is who he is." Piper quipped.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Actually, it has survived longer. Depending on the piece it can be as old as five thousand years." Annabeth put in, in true child of Athena fashion.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele**_**, for a girl about our age. HE told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"That's why you always call her Mrs. Dodds isn't it?" Nico asked, glad he finally figured it out.

"Yep, nasty no matter where or what form she is in." Percy replied, again not letting the mortals here.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Honestly, Mrs. Dodds probably caused it." Percy said.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"I hate it when she does that," Nico stated, "It's so weird, especially when she is in her true form."

Percy nodded in agreement.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight. I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Again, how much more obvious do you have to make it. Grover, I'm sorry, but you can't keep your cover to save your life." Annabeth shook her head in a sad fondness.

**Mr. Bruner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up**_**?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"It always will with your luck Perce." Jason admitted.

The mortals didn't know how bad Percy's luck really was, but they imagined it wasn't good.

Julia, Travis, and Andrew had been sitting quietly listening. They really were speechless. Percy was a completely different person around these people. He was more open, he laughed, smiled, and his eyes were lit up like they had never seen them. Even though Percy did consider them his friends, they could never be as close to him as these people. They relied on each other, saved each other's lives on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. You can't hope to have that without the experience behind it.

**The whole grouped laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"**Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele.**

"**Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"**Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because…"**

"**Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"**God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"**Titan," I corrected myself.**

"You're lucky you didn't get smited for that." Leo said.

"Is smited even a word?" Jason asked.

"I don't know, if it isn't then I just made it up, and it is now a word."

"**And…he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

"**Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"**-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Did you just sum up the largest war in all of space and time into one sentence?" Annabeth asked.

"Yep." Percy smirked.

Annabeth just shook her head playfully and gave him a peck on the cheek.

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"**And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Oh, I don't know, probably because all the monsters we ever talked about, all the gods, and titans that were ever mentioned, all wanted to kill me?" Percy said, with a dark sort of humor that scared a few.

"**Busted," Grover muttered.**

"**Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red then her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Or the ears of a horse," Annabeth mumbled to Percy, making him smile.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"**I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, slicked him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"Yes, because that was such a happy note." Someone in the crowd said sarcastically, earning a laugh.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Those girls are lucky they aren't half-bloods. If they can't handle hearing about it, there is no way they could handle actually seeing it happening in front of you." Annabeth commented.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

"Oh, that's never good." Leo shook his head sadly, having been in the same position many times.

**I knew what was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"That's because they have, and he is that old." Piper said.

Those demi-gods who had known Chiron the longest, especially Annabeth, shook their heads. They never really considered how old Chiron really was. He never acted like he had been alive for so long.

"**You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

"**About the Titans?"**

"**About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"**Oh."**

"**What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

"Oh, that won't confuse him at all. It makes perfect sense to someone who doesn't even know that the gods exist." Hazel spoke up.

Many of the mortals agreed. If they had heard that, they would have been extremely confused, and probably assumed this Mr. Brunner guy was crazy.

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name ever Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"Okay, that right there is physically impossible, and should be considered cruel and unusual punishment." Jason admitted.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No- he didn't expect me to be **_**as good; **_**he expected me to be **_**better**_**. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"That had to be harsh," Travis commented, knowing how hard tried Percy tried in school.

Percy smiled at his friend.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"He probably was." Nico admitted.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city.**

"Well, someone was throwing a temper tantrum." Nico sighed.

The mortals looked a bit confused. If the gods were all powerful, then how come the demi-gods could speak about them with such blatant disrespect?

**I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"She really does sound like an awful girl." Mrs. Nethers, Percy's second favorite teacher, next to Paul said. She had taken a liking to Percy his first day, and had given him extra help when he needed it, which Percy was extremely grateful for.

"She was." Percy nodded in agreement.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that **_**school- the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"**Detention?" Grover asked.**

"**Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean- I'm not a genius."**

"Maybe not, but you are still one of the smartest guys I've ever met. If not in books then definitely in life." Annabeth whispered to her boyfriend, wanting to show him just how much she loved him.

Percy kissed her right on the lips after that, soft and sweet. They both relished in the fact that for once they didn't have to be scared of an attack.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

The room cracked up laughing at that.

"Classic Grover," Annabeth laughed.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. **

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat.**

Percy looked sad at the mention of his mother. He missed her more than he cared to admit, and desperately wanted to see her.

Annabeth gave him a one armed hug.

"You will see her again. I know you will."

Percy gave her a sad smile.

**I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Mama's boy!" A boy called out from the crowd.

"You would be too, if you had his mother." Nico defended, remembering how well he had been treated whenever he popped in, literally, at Percy's.

Anyone who had ever met Sally jumped to her defense. It was impossible to meet Sally Jackson without loving her.

Percy and Paul both smiled. They were glad to see Sally was so loved.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.**

"Dude, that is so my next invention!" Leo exclaimed.

"NO! No more living tables!" Piper and Jason said simultaneously.

The mortals looked confused, but decided not to ask questions.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends- I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists- and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

Annabeth and Percy both went red with anger. No one messed with their friends.

"**Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Ew," Piper said, a disgusted look on her face.

"Uh, Pipes, your Aphrodite is showing again." Leo commented, but immediately shut up at the sight of the death glare being directed at him by said girl.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

"**-the water-"**

"**-like it grabbed her-"**

"Dude, can you actually control water?" Andrew asked, amazed at his buddy's power.

"Yeah," Percy said, grabbing the water bottle next to his chair.

He unscrewed the cap and placed it in the middle of the stage before sitting back in his seat. He held out his hand and the water rose in a small fountain out of the bottle. The whole room watched in amazement as the water formed into the shape of a trident, before pouring back into the bottle, without a single drop landing on the floor.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now honey-"**

"**I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"Of course it wasn't! You never guess your punishment, it only makes it worse!" Nico scolded.

"I know, and you have been spending too much time around the Stolls, and the rest of the Hermes cabin for that matter." Percy rebutted, leaving Nico in silence.

"**Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

"**Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I **_**pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

"**I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

"**But-"**

"**You-**_**will-**_**stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"**It's okay, man," I told him, "Thanks for trying."**

"**Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now."**_

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"That stare is downright terrifying." Hazel said, remembering him in Alaska.

"Oh, Prissy can't be that scary," one of the students, who particularly liked to pick on Percy called.

As a result, he was fixed with the stare, and went white as a ghost. Percy could look very dangerous and evil when he wanted to be.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

Some of the mortals were starting to catch on that there was definitely something wrong.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it.**

"Interesting comparison there Perce," Jason said, knowing exactly the feeling Percy was talking about.

**The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"Probably not, he probably knew exactly what was happening, but he can keep a cover, unlike Grover." Annabeth reasoned out loud.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us the gallery was empty.**

"Well that's just a recipe for an attack." Nico stated.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

"**You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"Wow, wow, wow, did I hear you right? Percy did the safe thing?" Frank joked. Percy wasn't known for his good decisions.

The demi-gods, and those in the crowd who knew Percy well enough, laughed.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

"She's not human…is she?" A girl called from the middle of the room.

"Not in any way, shape, or form." Nico answered her.

All the mortals paled considerably, especially the teachers and Percy's friends.

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Keep telling yourself that Percy." Jason sighed.

**I said, "I'll- I'll try harder ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

"**We are not fools, Percy Jackson." Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer **_**from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

Percy received high fives from all the guys on the stage, but was reprimanded by his girlfriend for not reading an "American classic".

"**Well?" she demanded.**

"**Ma'am, I don't…"**

"**Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

Several of the girls in the room screamed at the mental image. The boys were looking pale, and nobody wanted to be a half-blood anymore.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"**What ho, Percy!" He shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"What good is a pen going to do?" Someone shouted, only to be instantly shushed by everyone else.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword- Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

Percy placed his hand in his pocket, wrapping it around said pen. He didn't take it out just then though, he wanted to surprise them at just the right time.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

For once, nobody picked on Percy, all the demi-gods remembering their fear in their first fight.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"Swinging a sword at a monster comes natural to you?" A teacher asked, baffled.

"Yeah, its natural instinct for all demi-gods," Percy explained.

"But Percy especially, he is the best swordsman in the past three centuries." Annabeth bragged for her boyfriend.

Percy reddened when all eyes were suddenly on him, amazed.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss!**_

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a shill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

The mortals let a breath out they didn't realize they had been holding. The room almost visibly relaxed now that Percy was in no immediate danger, even though he was sitting, alive, right in front of them.

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

By this point, everyone was confused as to what was happening. A monster had just almost killed him, and he had killed it with the sword. What happened?

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Magic mushrooms, Percy? Really?" Hazel chastised.

"Hey, cut me some slack, I was panicking, and I was twelve!"

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still sitting there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

A chorus of "Who?" and "What is she talking about?" resounded throughout the room.

"All will be explained," Percy said, in his best Asian master voice.

**I said, "Who?"**

"**Our **_**teacher**_**. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"**Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"See, he can keep his cover even minutes after a monster almost killed a kid." Leo said.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

"**Sir," I said. "Where is Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly, "Who?"**

"He always was way too good at lying. That's why he was always so good at keeping secrets." Annabeth sighed.

"**The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. **

"**Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Well, that's the end of the chapter." Paul announced, closing the book after marking his place.

"I think we should take a few minutes and stretch our legs before beginning again." The principal spoke up, and the people in the room scattered.

**Well, there you go, the first official chapter!**

**What did you think? Let me know in a review, and tell me what other characters need to be brought in. It really makes my day, and it helps me right. This is the fastest I have ever updated a story. I will try to keep it up, but updates may be late if life gets busy. Thank you so much for the love you have shown this story already!**

**-Tribute324**


	3. Three old ladies knit the socks of death

**Thank you guys so much for all the reviews and follows. You have no idea how much this means to me. Enjoy this next chapter!**

All the readers filed back into the room slowly, rearranging themselves into their groups of friends. Paul, having had a drink, picked the book back up.

**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death **he read.

Percy got some strange looks at that one.

He just held up his hands in truce, "I didn't write it."

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four / seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr- a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip- had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"I would have gone insane," Julia commented.

"I almost did, I was freaking out. Everyone thought I was crazy." Percy said with a grin.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"It was Grover wasn't it?" Piper asked, already knowing the answer.

Percy nodded, and then shook his head fondly at the thought of his old friend.

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something **_**had **_**happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"I remember when a fury was the worst of my nightmares." Percy said, with dark irony.

"What do you mean? Those would be horrifying!" Julia exclaimed.

"Demi-god dreams are terrible. Usually they are just nightmares, really bad ones, but sometimes its visions, or flashbacks, usually of someone you love dying." Percy explained.

All the mortals went white. No wonder the group on the stage looked so tired. Most of them hadn't slept through the night in years. Percy and Annabeth hadn't slept in several days, and the others had slept minimal, for no more than a few hours at a time.

Paul looked at his step-son sadly. He had been around when Percy had been awoken by nightmares, and he wouldn't wish the fate on anyone.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"It's a shame the mortals have to get hurt whenever the gods have a fight." Hazel said, saddened that so many people had ended up dead because of their parents.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time.**

"Percy, there were major sea disasters that year. Do you think your emotions could be connected to those of the sea itself?" Annabeth asked, suddenly finding an explanation for Percy's periods of extreme anxiety and stress.

"That would make sense. Whenever I get super angry, not in battle of course, usually something is wrong in my father's kingdom." Percy reasoned.

**My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"It means old drunk." Annabeth commented.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"Mr. Blofis, I didn't know you could even play poker!" A call came from the back of the room.

"This is Percy's first step-father." Annabeth called back.

"Percy, you don't live on the Upper East side." Nico said, confused.

"We used too. After this quest, we got a new apartment."

**And yet… there were things I'd missed at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too- Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

"He was the first teacher I ever had that didn't immediately give up on me the minute they say my record." Percy said, smiling at the memory.

Annabeth smiled sadly. Even before Percy had found out he was a demi-god, he had had a hard life.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"You were starting to sense your true heritage." Frank figured.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology **_**across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. **

The demi-gods all looked sympathetic. They all knew how frustrating that sensation could be.

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces.**

"Definitely know those now." Percy joked.

**And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson**_**.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up my mythology book.**

Annabeth looked a bit happier. She hated for books to be abused.

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "… worried about Percy, sir."**

"You stayed and eavesdropped didn't you?"

Percy did his best not to look guilty.

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

All the demi-gods who were getting ready to make jokes had to admit they would have done the same thing. It was a given, you had to listen in that situation.

**I inched closer.**

"…**alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they **_**know too-"**

"**We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"I could have handled it." Percy said, even though he doubted it.

"**But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline-"**

"**Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

"What happens on the summer solstice?" One girl asked from the middle of the room.

"You'll find out." Percy responded. Everyone in the room realized they were going to hate that phrase throughout these books.

"**Sir, he **_**saw **_**her…"**

"**His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"**Sir, I…I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"How many times do we have to tell that idiot goat boy, he didn't fail! Thalia gave herself up to save us!" Annabeth yelled.

Percy put an arm around her shoulder, reminding her that this was five years ago, and that Grover didn't blame himself anymore.

The mortals were left wondering what Grover was talking about, and who Thalia was.

"**You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

"That's going to go over real well," Piper sighed.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

Nico and Jason face-palmed.

"Never give away your position!"

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall. A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"Why was he out of his chair? He knows how dangerous that could be. Anyone could have seen him!" Annabeth whisper yelled to her boyfriend.

"He had been in that thing non-stop since September. I would have wanted out too, even if just for a few minutes." Percy reasoned with her.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop**_**, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

The mortals were now extremely confused. What could that have possibly been?"

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"**Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn…"**

"**Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

"**Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

"That would have scared the living daylights out of me." Andrew spoke up, while Julia and Travis nodded in agreement.

"It did at the time. It's not scary anymore because I understand what they were talking about."

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"**Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

"**You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"**Just…tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"That isn't going to work. He can sense your emotions. It especially wouldn't work now, with the empathy link." Annabeth pointed out.

"Well, I didn't know he could do that then, and we didn't have an empathy link."

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"Because you were. Mortal danger." Piper pointed out.

Percy just sighed, tired of explaining his thoughts to everyone.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving a three hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

"That would be absolute torture." The males in the room agreed, along with some of the girls. The rest of them just rolled their eyes.

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

"**Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's…it's for the best."**

"You took that the wrong way didn't you?" Nico said, pointing a knowing look at his cousin.

"Hey, the way he worded it made it sound like I was destined to fail no matter what I did. Not the best thing to here." Percy defended.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"She has got to be the vilest human being to walk the planet!" Hazel said, a little of her old New Orleans, 1940's accent slipping back into her voice.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

"**I mean…" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

"That really was bad wording." Frank said, speaking up for the first time in a while.

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"**Right," I said, trembling.**

"**No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say…you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

"**Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot sir, for reminding me."**

"**Percy-"**

**But I was already gone.**

"That was harsh dude," Leo said, a look of sympathy on his face.

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich**_** juvenile delinquents.**

"You are nothing like them." Annabeth, Nico, and Jason all said in defense of their friend. Andrew, Julia and Travis all nodded in agreement.

"Thanks, guys," Percy said, blushing slightly.

**Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities.**

"Who do we know that fits that description Jason?" Leo asked a smile on his face.

Jason, afraid of his girlfriend's wrath, for good reason, said nothing.

Piper sent Leo a glare. If looks could kill, Leo would have been six feet under.

**I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Well, I wouldn't go that far. Your father's side is pretty awesome." Nico joked.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"Or, you know, you could save the world. Take your pick," Jason commented as if it were as normal a comment as the time of day.

"**Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"Which was totally a coincidence, I'm sure." Percy joked.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers.**

"He could have sensed if there was a monster was on board. I don't remember there being one, so I don't know why he was so nervous."

**It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Good way to give him a heart attack." Jason laughed.

Percy joined in, remembering how high Grover had jumped.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha- what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"You always were nosy, weren't you kelp head."

"So were you, pinecone face." Percy smiled wide, and ran to hug his cousin who had just walked into the room.

"THALIA!" All the demi-gods yelled.

Hugs were exchanged, along with greetings and playful banter.

"Excuse me, but who is this?" One of the teachers called.

"Oh yeah, Thals, we have been reading-"

"I know, I got a note before I came." She turned toward the crowd.

"I am Thalia, daughter of Zeus, hunter of Artemis. In other words, I have sworn off men, so all you guys who think you have a shot at me, I can see it in your eyes. You don't, so don't even try."

She went to a couch, and sat between Percy and Nico. The three cousins were the closest group in both camps, even if they couldn't be together that often. They had the greatest powers, and knew how to keep each other in high spirits, since all three had the hardest lives.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

"**Oh…not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy… I was just worried for you, see? I mean hallucinating about demon math teachers…"**

"**Grover-"**

"**And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and…"**

"**Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"He always was. Still is in fact." Thalia commented.

"That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Although, being a satyr in charge of finding demi-gods, it does cause problems." Annabeth reasoned.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

_**Grover Underwood**_

_**Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800 ) 009-0009**_

"I'm pretty sure Mr. D makes them that way just to make it harder on us." Leo said,

The demi-gods all nodded in agreement. Those who had been to Camp Half-Blood that is.

"**What's Half-"**

"**Don't say it aloud!" He yelped. "That's my, um… summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"**Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or…or if you need me."**

"**Why would I need you?"**

"PERCY!" Percy was shouted at by almost all the girls in the room for his insensitivity. He just held up his hands in defeat. He hadn't meant for it to sound that way.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is I- I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.**

"Your fatal flaw is making an appearance again." Annabeth warned,

"A fatal flaw?" A teacher in the front row asked.

"Every hero has one, a trait that is their downfall, and is usually, well, fatal. It's different for everyone. Ours should be revealed at some point in the books." Annabeth explained kindly. It wasn't the mortal's fault they had been kept in the dark. As long as they didn't ask stupid, obvious questions, everyone should be able to get along fine.

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me**_**.**

"**Grover," I said. "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

Warning bells were going off in every demi-gods head. Percy had elected to leave this part out of the story when he told about his life before he got to camp. Grover had been sworn to secrecy by Percy about the incident.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road- no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon hear, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

"Percy, I swear to the gods, if those are who I think they are, you are going to die." Annabeth growled at her boyfriend, a look in her eyes that made Percy afraid for his life.

The mortals were confused, but they figured there was something significant about the three old women, and it couldn't be good.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the right knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basked of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

Percy fought the urge to scoot away from his girlfriend, due to the intensity of the glare being directed his way. He turned to find similar glares coming at him from all the demi-gods. Most had concern, a lot of it, mixed in with the fury of being kept in the dark about this particular occurrence.

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me. **

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

"**Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

"**Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

"**Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"So not the time for jokes Percy," Thalia said seriously. She was worried for her cousin.

"**Not funny Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors- gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

"**We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

"**What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"**Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the year, and I swear I could hear that **_**snip **_**across four lanes of traffic.**

"You saw the fates cut a string!" Annabeth cried, half worried out of her mind, half furious. Okay, more worried than anything.

"Yeah, but here I am, perfectly fine. It was someone else, I promise. I should have told you, I'm sorry." Percy said soothingly, pulling Annabeth back onto the couch, as she had sprung to her feet.

"Don't hide things like this from me! You could have died!"

"I know… I'm sorry." Percy held her, and kissed the top of her head. He knew she wasn't really mad, just worried about him.

The others were worried too, but not as bad as Annabeth.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for- Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

"**Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

Percy held Annabeth tighter to him, as they were now cuddled on the couch, Annabeth's head on Percy's chest. He had suddenly felt sick, and then it was gone. He didn't know what it was, but it scared him a bit.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

"**Grover?"**

"**Yeah?"**

"**What are you not telling me?"**

"Just about everything important," Percy sighed.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

"**You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like… Mrs. Dodds are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds.**

"Yeah, much worse."

**He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

"**The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

"**Yeah. So?"**

"So, that means you're most likely going to die soon!" Annabeth said, still a bit shaken. She didn't want to think about the number of times she had come too close to losing the one person she loved more than anything.

**But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"**This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

Thalia shot Annabeth a look, but no words were exchanged.

"**What was last time?"**

"**Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"**Grover?" I said, because he was really starting to scare me.**

"Don't look at me like that. If you're best friend started mumbling to himself, and glancing at you like you were a bomb that was going to detonate and kill everyone, then you would be a bit shaken too." Percy glared at the mortals.

"**What are you talking about?"**

"**Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"**Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

"This is a lot more than a superstition." Nico said grimly.

"**Grover- that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

Paul set the book down, very pale, worried for the boy he had come to think of as his son.

"Does anyone else want to read?"

**There you go!**

**There will be a major twist thrown in soon, but I am not sure where yet. Within the next few chapters. Keep the love coming for this story guys, its amazing! Did I do okay with Thalia, she is one of my favorites, but she isn't in the books a ton, so it's kind of hard to write and work with her.**

**Thank you so much!**

**-Tribute324**


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